Jenna Ladd | January 31, 2017

Carmichael became faculty at the University of Iowa in 1978 after earning a BS in chemical engineering at Iowa State University and a PhD from the University of Kentucky. Nearly four decades later, the Karl Kammermeyer Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering remains devoted to studying the global impact of pollution on air quality.

In an interview with IowaNow, Carmichael recounts how he initially became interested in air quality issues. He said, “At the time I was doing my graduate studies, acid rain was emerging as a big problem. That was really the first air pollution problem that demonstrated to people that we could have an impact beyond our local environment.”

Carmichael has won several awards including the Regents Faculty Recognition Award in 1998, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Lawrence K. Cecil Award in 2012, NASA Group Achievement Awards in 2005 and 2009. Over time, Carmichael’s research became increasingly international. In the most recent fifteen years, his research team has has conducted air quality forecasting field experiments in Chile, California, the Arctic, and Beijing.

Much of his research considers how air pollution travels intercontinentally. He said, “We have done a lot of work on this topic over time, and this long-range transport of pollution is now being taken into consideration in the management of U.S. air quality and in international discussions. Wherever the emissions are occurring, they have an impact not only locally but globally as well.”

Carmichael became co-director of CGRER in 1991, and currently serves alongside Dr. Jerry Schnoor, University of Iowa professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering.